Buffalo J. (1999) 1 : 97-104

Brief Communication

WATER BUFFALO MILK PRODUCTION IN MARAJOISLAND, BRAZIL

J.B. Lourenco-Junior, M. Símao-Neto, S. Dutra, M.P.S. Moraes,A.V. Lourenço and J.A.R. Silva

Brazilian Agricultural Research Organisation (EMBRAPA), Agroforestry ResearchCentre for the Eastern Amazon (CPATU), Belem, Para, Brazil

Received June 17, 1997Accepted October 22, 1998

Key words: Amazon, water buffalo production system, management, lactation

INTRODUCTION

The Amazon region has great potential for animal production, due to itsland availability, water, solar radiation and natural grassland ecosystems. Half ofthe Brazilian water buffalo herd, about 1.5 million head, is bred in this region. Inthe Marajo Island, Para State, there are 700 thousand buffaloes, producing meat onnative pastures extensively grazed, oflow productivity and nutritive value. Averagemilk production per cows is very low. The breeds Carabao, Jafarabadi, Murrah andMediterranean, this last of higher numerical expression, have good potential formeat and milk production. Murrah buffaloes, of more recent introduction in thecountry, shows excellent productive and reproductive perforrnance, with highpotential for milk production.

Water buffaloes have relevant role in the elevation of the social andeconomicallevel of small communities (Gill, 1986). In Brazil, and especially in theAmazon region, they can be of great importance for milk production in small andmedium rural properties, but it is necessary to know the relationships betweenproductive variables (such as milk production) and environmental variables (climateand nutrition, mainly).

The grass Brachiaria humidicola, due to its productivity, rusticity, andadaptation to low fertility soils and to climatic extremes, has been indicated tosubstitute native pasture of the Marajo Island (Lourenco Junior et al., 1993;Salimos et si; 1993).

The aim of this study was to evaluate milk production of Murrah buffaloesgrazing on Brachiaria humidicola cultivated pasture of Marajo Island, Para State,Brazil.

© by Research Centre for Bioscience in Animal Production and Thai Buffalo Association

98 BUFFALO JOURNAL 15 (1)

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The trial was carried out at the Experimental Station of EMBRAPA in theMarajo Island (00'40' Latitude South and 48' 33' Longitude West), climatic typeAmi, of Koppen classification (Bastos et al., 1986), with dry period from July toDecember and rainy period from January to June, average temperature of 27'C andannual rainfall of 2,800 mm (Fig. 1). The soils are Hidromorphic Laterite and HumicGley (Day& Santos, 1962), of low fertility and high acidity.

800 29600 28

E OE 400 27 o

200 26O 25

JFMAMJJ A 5 O N O

Rainfall •-----Temperature

Fig. 1. Climatic conditions ofthe experimental area, period from 1989 to 1995.

The experimental area was a Brachiaria humidicola pasture stocked at 1Animal Unit (AU) - animal weighing 450 kg - per ha/year, divided in paddocks of 2ha each, used by females of breeding age and calves. Water and mineralsupplements were supplied ad libitum.

The herd was formed initially by 41 Murrah buffaloes, 40 females and abull. The calves remained with their mothers during the day until 5:00 pm.Milking was carried out once a day, manually, by 5:00 amo Milk production wasevaluated monthly, two milkings a day, according to the procedures established bythe Brazilian Buffalo Breeders Association (ABCB). The cows were weighed aftercalving and all the animals every month.

The heifers were mated at the average weight of about 65% of the adultweight, and at the age between 20 and 24 months. Females presenting anyabnormality or producing less than 900 kg of milk per lactation were eliminated.

MILK PRODUCTION IN MARAJO ISLAND, BRAZIL 99

The animals were vaccinated against foot-and-mouth disease and brucellosis andwere dewormed and treated against lice (Haematapinus tuberculatus).

Data of milk production from 1989 to 1995 were recorded. Statisticalanalysis was carried out through SAS, according to the model : Yijklm = U + Ai + Ej+ Gk + 01 + Cm (ELijklm - EL) + eijklm. Where Yijklm = Milk production (kg); U =General average; A, E, G, O and EL = Effects of year, períod, blood level, birth orderand lactation period (considered as a co-variable); Cm = Co-variable coefficient;eijklm = Random error.

A comparative economical evaluation was carried out to compare theproduction system tested in this study with the traditional systems commonly usedin the region, which use very low technological inputs.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The analysis of variance of milk production data from 1989 to 1995 ispresented in Table 1. The only factor affecting milk production was the lactationperiod. Annual averages of milk production varied from 968 ± 115 to 1,339 ± 320kg, as shown in Table 11. Milk production in the rainy and in the dry seasons was1,118 ± 265 and 1,235 ± 263 kg. Averages of milk production according to bloodlevel of the mother cows are presented in Table 111,with an overall average of 1,204± 199 kg and showing a trend of lower milk production of the females having higherMurrah blood level. This value is superior to that found in the Medium AmazonRiver region, Para State (993 kg), but lower than the averages reported by Empresa(1988), Mosse (1979), Nascimento et alo (1979) and Marques (1984), which were2,000, 1,583, 1,957 and 1,655 kg, respectively.

TABLE I ANALYS1S OF VAR1ANCE OF BUFFALO M1LK PRODUCT10N 1NMARAJO 1SLAND

Source of uariatiori Degree of [reedoni Mean Square F

Birth year 6Year period 1Blood level 5Birth order 5Lactation period 1Error 73

35,399.0737,354.9327,024.9174,858.60

1,573,001.8139,428.01

0.90NS0.95NS0.69NS1.90NS39.90**

Coefficient ofvariation = 16.49%.

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TABLE 11 ANNUALAVERAGEMILK PRODUCTION

Year Number of observations Milk production (kg)

1989 7 1,202.7 ± 243.9

1990 23 1,168.6 ± 242.6

1991 16 1,125.3 ± 228.6

1992 18 1,339.5 ± 320.4

1993 17 1,321.7 ± 283.1

1994 7 968.1 ± 114.6

1995 4 1,027.5 ± 55.5

Average 92 1,204.0 ± 198.6

TABLE 111 AVERAGE MILK PRODUCTION, ACCORDING TO THE BLOODLEVEL OF THE MOTHER COWS

Blood level of the mother cows Number of observations Milk production (kg)

3/4 Murrah -114Mediterranean

7/8 Murrah-l/8 Mediterranean

9/16 Murrah-7/16 Mediterranean

15/16 Murrah-l/16 Mediterranean

31/32 Murrah-1/32 Mediterranean

63/64 Murrah-1/64 Mediterranean

Overall average

10 1,340.5 ± 275.4

48 1,214.0 ± 255.2

1 978.7

28 1,177.1 ± 276.0

4 1,061.6 ± 200.2

1 898.0

92 1,204.0 ± 198.6

MiIk production reached 1,339 ± 320 and 1,321 ± 283 kg in 1992 and 1993,due to the better management of the pasture and the seIection of better animaIsperformed in the herdo There was a trend to increase milk production from the firstto the fifth lactation order, 1,125.4 kg to 1,349 kg, decreasing to 992.1 kg in thesixth order. Milk production according to the birth order varied from 992 ± 80 to1,349 ± 313 kg, as shown in Table IV.

MILK PRODUCTION IN MARAJO ISLAND, BRAZIL 101

The selection of females for lactation persistence lead to the increase ofproduction (FAO, 1991) and the records of mi1k production of female buffalo herdsare usually kept in 305-day lactations, although many individuals produce milkbeyond this period, in well managed herds.

Averages oflactation period according to birth year and to lactation arder arepresented in Tables V and VI. Lactation period in 1989 was 302.1 days, butdecreased with time. The overall average of obtained, 235.4 days, below the idealperiod, is due to the climatic effects during the dry season, reducing forageavailability and quality. Longer lactation period was observed by Marques (1984)for the Amazon region (274.2). Nascimento et al. (1979) observed lactation periodsof 316 days for Mediterranean and 340 days for Murrah females.

Analysing lactation period by lactation order, it was verified that there was areduction with the increase of lactation order. Average milk production found issuperior to that observed in the traditional breeding system of Marajo Island, 800kg per lactation, which shows that improved pasture systems can increase regionalmilk production.

In Table VII it shown the results of the economical evaluation, in which itcan be observed that the net income is about three times above the average obtainedin traditional production systems. Net income can increase up 200% using a smallerpasture area, about l.0 ha, against 5.0 ha per AV found in the traditional buffaloproduction in native pastures.

TABLE IV AVERAGEMILK PRODVCTIONACCORDINGTO BIRTH ORDER

Birth order Number of observations Milk production (kg)

1

2

3

4

5

6

Overall average

17

28

18

15

10

4

92

1,125.4 ± 230.21,154.2 ± 209.8

1,232.1 ± 225.3

1,32l.0 ± 358.4

1,349.4 ± 313.0

992.1 ± 80.1

1,204.0 ± 198.6

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TABLE V AVERAGE MILK PRODUCTION, ACCORDING TO BIRTH YEAR

Birthyear Number of observations Lactation period (days)

1989199019911992199319941995Overall average

72316181774

92

302.1 ± 57.8242.6 ± 37.2217.0 ± 26.6244.1 ± 35.6244.0 ± 32.9187.3 ± 19.2160.5 ± 2.4235.4 ± 32.9

TABLE VI LACTATION PERIOD ACCORDING TO THE LACTATION ORDER

Lactation order Number of observations Lactation period (days)

123456Overall average

17281815104

92

266.9 ± 59.9227.2 ± 36.5228.9 ± 29.0236.1 ± 39.9237.3 ± 46.3182.0 ± 32.9235.4 ± 32.9

TABLE VII GROSS AND NET INCOMES ACCORDING TO THE MILKPRODUCTION SYSTEM (US$ 1.00)

Income / Cost Production system

Traditional system This trial

Gross incomeTotal costNetincome

5,656.163,512.072,144.09

11,292.894,926.846,366.05

MILK PRODUCTION IN MARAJO ISLAND, BRAZIL 103

CONCLUSION

Significant effects of birth year, year period, blood level and birth order onmilk production were not observed, different1y from lactation period. Milkproduction of buffaloes grazing cultivated pasture of Brachiaria humidicola in theMarajo Island (1,204.0 ± 198.6 kg/cow/lactation) was superior to the productionobserved in the traditional breeding system on native pasture (800 kg of milk perlactation of about of 200 days),

The use of proper, simple and low cost management techniques, can increaseproductivity of buffalo production systems of Marajo Island up to four times, 5.0 hato 1.0 ha per animal unit. Although production costs of this system is 50% higher,net income is about three times superior in relation to traditional systems.

REFERENCES

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Mosse, G. (1979). Estudo do desempenho reprodutivo e produtivo de um rebanhobubalino. In : Encontro Sobre ubalinos, Aracatuba, 1979. Anais. ARacatuba,1979. pp. 201-217.

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